Reverb 12 | Prompt 17 | Surprise

#reverb12 is a prompt-a-day series for the month of December that is meant to give us all the chance to reflect on 2012 and the opportunity to write down our hopes and dreams for the coming year. Through December 31st Meredith, Sarah and I will be posting each day with a new prompt. Join us by writing, or join us by reading. No matter what you choose, come with us.

Surprise: The most surprising thing that happened this year was…

I thought this post was going in one direction and once again, I found myself in a place where it made more sense to delete everything and to Start Over Again.

I’m sure y’all wonder why I tell you when I do this, but what it comes down to is the fact that I don’t want you to think that I’m perfect at writing. That when I sit down to write, it doesn’t all come out exactly how I want it to sound the first time around.

So. Surprise.

What surprised me this year? I’m not sure if it’s the fact that I actually managed to survive bike training for a marathon or the fact that I was actually able to run a marathon after training for it on a bike.

Yes, I realize that the span of time between June 16th and October 7th has kind of been A Theme Of Sorts for 2012. And I appreciate the fact that y’all have hung on while we have hashed out and re-hashed all of the things.

But in all seriousness, from the moment we started heading home from Duluth until the moment I crossed the finish line at Twin Cities, I did not know if it was all really going to work out in the end.

And that was kind of a first for me. I am a painful perfectionist. I have a solid grasp of opportunity cost and as a result of all of this, failure and I are friendly foes.

I still don’t understand why this time it seemed more rational to chase the 10% odds of success versus the 90% chance of failure.

I saw it through.

I didn’t throw the work out when I was halfway done because it wasn’t “just right.”

I took a less-than-ideal chance rather than wait it out for The Right Time.

And so as much as I’m surprised that everything worked out in the end, I’m even moreso that I was able to focus on having that one chance rather than what was or was not Just Right.